20131201與時競爭勤造福 The Race Against Time to Cultivate Blessings and Awaken
Geographically, Pingtung County stretches far from north to south so it’s a big distance to travel. Some of you even come from the off-island of Liuqiu. You’re really so dedicated to serve throughout Pingtung. I see elderly volunteers here, they’ve been in Tzu Chi for a long time. I’m very happy to see them.
But in life, with every day that passes, we have less time in life. I keep saying that time is running out. I feel this urgency because with my growing age, I have less time left. I don’t count my time by the day but by the second. Every second that passes can never be gotten back. Every day, the seconds pass becoming minutes and hours that pass and after 24 hours, that’s one day that’s gone.
We have to be clear in counting time like this. For all other things, we can “just let go”, but when it comes to time we have to be very exacting. We need to race against time. Don’t just drift through your days in obliviousness. We have to race against time. Of course, in such a race, it seems we can never win. But, we mustn’t just give up. That’s why I keep saying time is running out. I want everyone to really take in the Dharma.
When I last visited here in July, I told you about a young boy who was travelling with me. When he listens to my morning Dharma talk, he really take in all the teachings he hears. One time, when he showed me his notes from one morning’s Dharma talk, I saw that his notebook was covered in writing.
The notes were in complete sentences and the sentences weren’t just what I said, word for word. So, he really took in and understood the teaching. It’s all because he is very mindful and earnest in learning. That’s why the Dharma enters his heart. So, on that trip, I asked him to give a sharing everywhere we went.
See, the Buddha said that people of all ages have the Buddha nature because it’s inherent in everyone. Everyone has the same nature as the Buddha. So, to learn the Dharma, we need to put our hearts into learning and be mindful. Having been born into this world, it’s very important to learn Dharma because having a human life is a rare opportunity.
Even rarer is the chance to encounter the Dharma, and after hearing it, we need to take the teaching to heart. Taking in the Dharma, we must furthermore have our actions be in line with the Dharma. That’s no easy thing.
Coming to this world, the Buddha realized that all our worldly pursuits during life ultimately leave us with nothing. That’s the reality of life. Moreover, in the short life that we have, we suffer from aging, illness, death, and life’s impermanence.
Seeing that we all go through these blindly, the Buddha had to come to this world to guide us to realize life’s truths and walk the path of cultivation. With his example, he showed how to transform the love we feel into love based on wisdom and expand our selfish and narrow love into love for all living beings---Great Love.
Such great wisdom and awakening and deep love for all --- the Buddha came to this world in order to teach us to have such a big heart and mind and to understand the Dharma because only then can we expand our hearts and realize how to live out life’s true value.
This is why I often say that we don’t know how long we’ll live because impermanence can strike at any time, but we should seize the time we have to broaden the scope of our life and deepen our roots of goodness.
To do this, we have to use this lifetime now to diligently serve as a bodhisattva. Since we are born as a human and have encountered the Dharma, both of which are very rare, if we don’t cultivate and awaken now when are we going to do this?
Now that we’ve learned the Dharma, we understand that we have no control over the length of our life, but we can give it breadth and depth. So, we should diligently walk the Bodhisattvas Path and learn the Dharma. So, in the past few years, I’ve kept saying that time is running out so you must quickly devote time to learning the Dharma.
Only by understanding the Dharma will we know how to go about our lives in a way that’s in harmony with everything in Nature and the universe which will allow us to live in peace and remain safe and well. That is why we must take the Dharma to heart. When we all apply Dharma to daily life and serve as bodhisattvas in the world, the world can become a safer place.
Before I left for this trip, for many days in my Dharma talks, I kept speaking of the world as a burning house where fires have started all throughout the house. It means disasters are happening everywhere. So, given all the disasters we’re experiencing, we really need to wake up.
Look at the disasters in the Philippines. On Leyte Island now, the two cities of Tacloban and Ormoc have almost entirely been leveled by the typhoon. The devastation was vast. So, it is a massive disaster. We have been very involved in the relief work there. Currently, we have volunteers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines serving in the disaster areas to inspire and lead the survivors in our cash-for-work program.
There’s much to be rebuilt. So, our aid work will continue for a long time. Our temporary shelters have also arrived at the disaster area. Our volunteers who designed this shelter will go to the Philippines to help assemble it. They were very proactive in seeking the chance to go. Such was the extent of their love and dedication. You see, as of today our volunteers in over 30 countries and regions in both the northern and southern hemispheres went out on the streets with donation boxes to collect donations. They do this for the people in the Philippines.
It’s not just to raise funds. The most important thing is to awaken people and let everyone know that somewhere in our world a shocking disaster has happened. We hope their awareness will make them vigilant and inspire their love to help others.
By creating blessings through good deeds we reduce the causes for disaster. So, those who are safe and well are blessed. Those with blessings should help those in need. So I hope everyone can realize this and be vigilant.
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